I only played a little bit more of Rotterdam, A few more glitches losing fish made me turn it off again. Still find getting a steady flow of bites an issue whatever baits or tactics I use. Any suggestions or places to up the catch rate?
I find that swim to not be very good for dead bait. The Pike have to many places to get off, if using dead bait on Rotterdam I would go to the east of the map where I had the pictures of the Pike. There is only one snap off point, and it can be avoided if you are careful. To catch the boss catfish I used a #2 hook with large savory boilies at sunset with dynamic. Very slow bite rate as you will only catch catfish and the largest carp. I was only catching about 5 fish per hour. Each session one of the boss catfish spawned in about 30-45 minutes. I have been going for small fish lately, mainly Perch. I found that by throwing all three baits in the same spot and then using the spod and throwing stick constantly I found almost constant bites. Last night I found a new spot by the bridge, and was casting right below me. I was consistently catching Perch, Roach, Ide, Tench, Bream, and Carp. The fish were right below me and I could see almost every fish. By spodding in the little fish, there was a constant stream of predator fish eating them. I saw large Pike, Catfish, and Zander some of which were bosses. So you can bring in predator fish by attracting small fish.
I played the carp tournament on Pearl Lake today, and I am currently 3rd. I caught Titan and Nancy Jo, the boss fish that took me the longest on that lake. I could've finished 1st if I would have not caught Titan, but he is to impressive to break off your line.
Boilies seem to take forever to get bites, dead baits too. Chicken Livers seems to get the most regular bites for me. Was also thinking about the smaller species again. Tried before but didnt have a great deal of luck with the usual maggots etc unless I went to float tactics. Perch, I get a few on a spinner or small spoon in a row and then after the swim(s) go dead!!!! I find the south east inclosed square of water I have the best luck of any place on the venue with any tactic/bait.
I am using size 8 hooks with plum and pineapple boilie, dedrobena worm, and imitation snail. I am getting pretty consistent bites, and if I start using the spod and the throwing stick I can catch 40+ fish an hour. Not a lot of rare I am mainly trying for perch and roach. I did catch a boss tench.
Cool, cheers. I will give it a go! Out of interest what do you use in your Spod/throwing stick? To be honest, I stopped using the throwing stick altogether just because it felt pretty ineffective.
I have been using regular spod mix, and a small high leakage boilie. I have also used maggots in the spod. I don't know if it matters very much.
How is it going, what lake are you working on? I have 3 to go on Rotterdam, and I am trying to decide what to do after.
Been flicking about a bit, returned to Pearl Lake to see if I can get some of the Boss fish remaining to be caught. Spent a short while back on Loch Mickie and Rotterdam with little success. Then against my better judgement I went back to the Ebro for a boss of any type, mainly concentrating on Carp with the hope a Boss Cat might pick up my bait as well. Sadly failed miserably on both counts, had some big fish including an 180lb Cat but noting named. I'd love to crack the Ebro but still the only 2 bosses I have are Barbel, tried nearly 90 hours on it with different times, places and tactics and still feel as far away as ever for any sort of Boss, especially in the Carp and Cat family ha ha..
I'm going to do the carp hunter tournament on the ebro today. Going to the spot for Pep and Perez to see if I have any luck. It seems that Rotterdam has dried up on me. The only bosses I have caught for the last 3 days have been carp over and over.
Spent hours on Pearl Lake yesterday and the only boss I managed was big timer(Again). The Ebro ... well its my nemesis.
Which bosses on Pearl? The most effective method I had for most of them was throwing at rocks on the right side of the bridge and waiting. I got to where I could identify most of the bosses by site.
I tried at the rocks for a while but nothing showed up and I didn't see anything other than stock fish either. I needed one of the Redtail Boss, which I believe I hooked as it was definitely a boss and the right time of day (Sunrise). Sadly it was in a timed match and I hooked it with about 1:30 on the clock left and the time ran out. I am not going out for Pacu or the Peacock Bass, so not bothered about them. That leaves one of the Siam which is the biggest, one Redtail Boss, the biggest Juliens and any of the Mekong. Think I am still missing the smallest Arapiama and one of the wolf fish boss but again not really been making much effort for them, thinking they might just turn up out of the blue anyway. I have kept with Monster Red or Tigernut Boilie on the first two rods and then the third either a large deadbait or chicken Livers. My most productive spot is on the south bank, walking past the bridge/rocks going right towards the waterfall. The last actual swim it will let you setup in/cant walk any further. Started trying different times rather than the usual sunrise or night I normally use to try and find the other bosses. Also been swapping between different parts of the venue more often. Nothing new though, bigtimer turns up regularly and had Ornstein a few more times.
For the redtail I would use dead bait and fish the deep hole near the waterfall, about 100 yds out a 14-15ft hole. Morning was usually best for them, also decent chance to catch the wolf fish. Try the little dock on the right side of the lake, casting back and to the left towards the boat on the shore. The last online tournament at Pearl I hooked into 6 different bosses over the 3 attempts.
At the moment I seem to be very good at catching all the Boss I had before Bigtimer being the one I catch at least once every session and thats from all over the lake. Using Boilie, the Siam and Pacu seems to smash the bait long before the Mekong arrive on the scene. And when they finally do, they don't take much interest in the bait. Think they are goading me...!
On the Ebro there are no places where the boss cats and carp overlap. I did try for a boss carp, but ended up with a boss barbel Aragon.
To be honest, I don't even know where the Boss carp are on the Ebro? Roughly know where two of the three boss Cats are but the smallest Cat again, no idea. Even if I knew where, not sure what baits the Boss carp take. One of the developers mentioned tiger nuts but I don't seem to get hardly any bites at all on them with carp.
Boss carp, barbel, and perch. Size 8 hooks with imitation snails to catch all three. These locations are from Trickster, who is the only person to catch all of the bosses in the game. I have only caught the barbel. You can change baits and hooks to target only the carp.
Might be where I am going wrong, I have always used the largest hooks (4 & 2) for the Boss Carp, as on other waters that's what I have caught others on. Cheers for this, will give it a go. In the meantime managed to tick off a boss Barbel and Chub on Bestii, Size 4, Sea Monster in the margins around the pontoons south bank central of the venue.
First Boss Fish on the Ebro that wasnt a Barbel. Wasn't exactly what I was after at the time but I'll happily take it. Still trying to work out the best times of day for Bosses that are not Catfish.
Nice job. If you caught the perch I would get a larger hook for the barbel and the carp. They said that afternoon is a good time to catch anything on the Ebro.
If anyone from Dovetail reads this could you please answer. Are there any prerequisites to catching all of the boss fish in a venue? Such as total fish, rare fish caught, or totals for each species. I have spent about the last 60 hrs searching for the last fish on Rotterdam with no luck. I have caught duplicates of almost every other fish in that amount of time.
I had a good week on the online tournaments, and also had repeats of Kai, Sterker, Delft, and Exodus.
Just Doom from Rotterdam this weekend, although not put too much time in. Hit a bit of a brick wall across all venues, I was wondering if this makes any difference? I always fish in pleasure fishing mode, don't do any of the tournaments online or offline. Seems a lot of people catch a lot of their boss fish while doing tournaments rather than pleasure fishing. Is there any actual difference in catch rates between them???
I always do the online tournaments, and then fish for the target species. Sometimes I am lucky like Fontes, and some weeks get nothing. I have seen people catch several bosses in these tournaments. If someone post a photo, I will try for that same fish, have had good luck doing that. I have done the offline tournaments a fair bit with limited success mainly on Oxlese, caught a Pike and a Ghost Carp. Some people swear by these though.
I always like to catch the ones that have sound effects. Another prize from this week's carp tournament. Definitely worth trying, I had 2 boss carp in 3 attempts. Default spawn same as Fangosa. Short cast down river, I try to keep under 10 ft depth. Also the Roman Rudd is in this swim.
Can see roughly where this is with the building on the shore line in your Fangosa pic but not 100% sure where I need to be? Can see the baits. Size 2 hook, sunrise for those carp?
It is the swim that you automatically start on. I was on the right peg for Fangosa, and middle peg for Architect. Short cast downriver, diagonal to the left, with a decent amount of spodding. Try for 6-10 ft depth. Hook size anything from 2-8, I think smaller is better to catch more chub and barbel to spawn more fish. I caught both of these from the online tournament this week, very good chance. Others have used the single player tournament.
